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In vain for me the landscape charms,
For me by stern disease confin'd,
To melancholy's power resign'd,

Not nature's smile my sorrow calms.

H.

SECOND EPODE OF HORACE

BLEST is the swain, who, far from strife,

And busy cares of city life,

Lives as they liv'd in days of old,
Which poets call the age of gold
Who tills his own paternal land,
Nor fears the usurer's griping hand.
No trumpet's warring blast he hears,
No wrecking storms molest his ears.
He shuns the court and gates of pride,
And rural cares his thoughts divide.
His sweet employ is now to join
To the high elm the wedded vine;
Now lop the barren boughs away,
Ingrafting new where old decay.
The hopeful slips beneath his care,
Rear soon their branching heads in air.
Now in the vale he joys to hear
His herds, and see his flocks appear;
Or of his toil some gain to reap,
He robs his angry bees and sheep;
Pours from the cells the liquid gold,
And steals the fleeces from the fold.
But when fair Autumn rears her head,
And in her lap her fruits are spread,
How he delights th' ingrafted pear
And purple grapes to pluck and bear
To thee, Priapus, as your due,
And your reward, Sylvanus, who
Protect our lands by honest bounds,

And right divide from neighbours' grounds.

Now in the shade he loves to pass

His leisure on the matted grass:

While down the banks the streamlet flows,
And tempts him to a calm repose;
Streams from the fountain flow along,
The birds pour forth melodious song,

And these his golden dreams prolong.
But when Jove o'er the season throws
His sleety rain and virgin snows,
With eager hounds the boar be foils,
Or drives him headlong to the toils.
Now he his subtle arts employs,
And to the springe the thrush decoys;
The stranger crane and timorous hare,
Are now the prizes of his snare.

Amid such joys, what power has love
His heart with cares and pains to move?
But if a modest pleasing wife,

Divide with him the cares of life;

May manage well the household care,
And well the tender offspring rear;
(A matron like a Sabine dame,
Or tann'd Appulian's honest fame)
May make the fire to briskly burn,
Against her spouse fatigued return;
Will fold the flock and milk the kine,
And bring her spouse the cheering wine;
With food that's grateful to his taste,
An unbought, but a sweet repast.
Nor Lucrine oysters then would please,
Nor scar nor turbot of the seas,

(Should Eastern tempests waft them o'er,
And leave them strangers to our shore,)

Nor Africk fowl, nor costly bird,

His taste more pleasure would afford,

Than unctuous olives of the field,

And shards, which health and vigour yield;

Than lambkins on a festal day,

Or prowling wolfine's rescued prey.

Amid the feast, 'tis his delight,

To see his wellfed flocks at night;

Or see his oxen toiling slow,

Draw through the glebe the sluggish plough ;

Around the hearth to view his hinds

With rustic mirth refresh their minds.

Thus Alphius, the usurer spake,
Resolv'd at once a farm to take :
So call'd his notes and money in;

Butere a fortnight let it out again.

K.

HOPE AND DOUBT.

WHEN Love, the wily, soft deluder,
Spreads his empire o'er the soul,
Doubt, impertinent intruder,

Shares with Hope a joint control.

Buoyant Hope, life's vivid painter,
First displays her flattering art,
Swears her tints will ne'er grow fainter,
Nor her gifts beguile the heart;

Now to fancy spreads the future,
Richly crown'd with every joy ;
Swears no mortal dare dispute her,
Nought can e'er the bliss destroy ;,

Gently whispers to the Lover,
Cease to fear a cold reply,
Sighing, listen and discover,
She responds as soft a sigh.

But when Doubt, with sable pinion,
Dares these shadowy realms invade,
Trembling Hope resigns dominion,
All her vivid colours fade ;

Life seems then a painted bubble,

Faith and truth the price of gold;

Nothing sure but care and trouble,

Friends are false, and love grows cold!

Then the eye, bedimm'd though tearless,
Sees no kindred spirit nigh;

Then the bosom, cold and cheerless,
Heaves no sympathetick sigh!

Thus when Zephyr's balmy breezes

Waken April's tender bands, Again his power if Boreas seizes, None escape his tyrant hands.

CARE AND LOVE.

GAY Love one morning, breathing sweets, With flowers and myrtle's flaunting, Encountering Care in Hymen's streets, Thus spake in accents taunting.

"Why do you damp the glowing mind ?
Why chill the ardent bosom ?
When I fond hearts together bind,

'Tis your attempt to loose them.

When I the cheek with roses strew,
The lip with nectar sprinkle,
You dry the lip, contract the brow,
And give the cheek a wrinkle.

When I give life its sweetest charm,
And wake its keenest relish,
You fill the bosom with alarm,

And mar what 1 embellish."

"Peace," answer'd Care, "your taunts forege,

Truth frowns at your perversion,
For every lasting joy, you know,
Depends on my exertion.

When fortune smiles you give delight,
You teach the heart to languish,
But when distress and want unite,
You but increase the anguish.

While I extend my guardian powers
To hearts by you united,

But for my aid your wreaths of flowers
By frosts would soon be blighted.

Cease then, and we'll our efforts join,

To increase and guard life's treasure, The task to shield from ills be mine,

Be yours to heighten pleasure."

THE

BOSTON REVIEW,

FOR

JUNE, 1810.

Librum tuum legi, et quam diligentissime potu: annotavi quae commutanda, quae extenda arbitrarer. Nam ego dicere verum assuevi. Neque ulli patientius reprehenduntur, quam Plin. qui maxime laudari merentur.

ARTICLE 15.

Lectures on the Evidences of the Christian Religion, delivered to the senior class, on Sundays, in the afternoon, in the College of New Jersey. By the Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith, D. D. President of the College. Philadelphia; Fry and Kammerer. 12mo. pp. 408. 1809.

THE Lectures of Dr. Smith contain a perspicuous account of some of the principal arguments in favour of Christianity, written in a style of more than common purity and neatness. They are, however, rather a series of dissertations on different branches of the evidences, and on matters of inquiry relating to these, than a connected view of the whole subject.

The two first Lectures are occupied in shewing "the necessity of a revelation," and this from three considerations.

"The necessity of a revelation may be inferred from the extreme ignorance, and even the monstrous errours with regard to the being of God, and to the nature of the worship which he requires, as well as with regard to a future existence, which prevailed almost universally among mankind at the period of the birth of Christ; it may be inferred from the extreme and universal depravation of morals, which the lights of nature and the aids of reason had become utterly impotent to remedy: And, finally, it may be inferred from the incapacity of the unaided powers of the human mind, satisfactorily to determine, if mercy will, or can, in consistency with the justice of God, and the purity of the divine nature, be extended to the guilty."

We shall insert from what immediately follows, and from the next lecture, the view which is given of the state of religion and morals at the time of the introduction of Christianity, and of the effect which this has produced.

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